NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, has passed into a new and unexplored region of space, but it has yet to move out of the solar system.
Scientists said on Wednesday that Voyager 1 was now over 11 billion miles away from the sun, moving at 38,000 miles per hour.
The spacecraft detected a sudden change in the cosmic rays hitting it on August 25, 2012.
Voyager 1, which was launched with its sister spacecraft Voyager 2 in the late 70’s to explore the outer planets, observed two types of radiation, one that stays within the solar system, and one found in interstellar space.
Voyager 1’s instruments recorded nearly double the amount of cosmic rays from outside the solar system.
The study was published online Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters.
They declared on Wednesday that Voyager 1 had left the solar system, but NASA was quick to correct them, saying the craft was still in the neighborhood.
Video Source: Reuters